An analysis on the levels of social physical anxiety and fat phobia of students studying for university entrance exam

The purpose of this study is to analyze the levels of social physical anxiety and fat phobia of students studying for university entrance exam in terms of some variables, and also to determine the relation between these two levels. This study is based on the general survey model for the specification of social physical anxiety and fat phobia levels of students studying for university entrance exam. This is a correlational survey model in terms of whether there are differences on the basis of gender, age, body mass index, active habit of doing sports, weekly frequency of doing sports, educational level of parents, habit of eating fast-food, and also of specification of the relation between the levels of social physical anxiety and fat phobia. For data collection, "Personal Information Form", "Social Physical Anxiety Scale", and "Fat Phobia Scale" have been used. Data of this study have been collected during the school year of 2018-2019 from the total number of 401 students studying senior year in high school (in the 12th grade), 216 of which are women (53,9%) and 185 of which are men (46,1%) who study for the university entrance exam at several private educational institutions affiliated with the Directorate of National Education at Efeler district of Aydın. According to the findings resulted from this study, it has been found that the levels of social physical anxiety of students display differences based on the variables of gender, body mass index, active habit of doing sports and weekly frequency of doing sports. When the findings on the fat phobia levels of students are analyzed, there is no difference in terms of any of the afore-mentioned variables. Furthermore, it has been found out that there is no meaningful relation between the social physical anxiety level of students as well as its sub-levels and fat phobia levels. Keywords: Fat phobia, high school student, obesity, social physical anxiety.